12/04/2014

Giant red himmeli

Readers of this blog will know that I am obsessed with all kinds of mobiles, and for a long time I have been into folksy ones, such as the Finnish 'himmeli' or the Polish 'pajaki'. I tried making various himmeli myself, and have gathered some practical advice on this page.

It's fun making them, and I keep saying that I will get some natural straw in the late summer, but for two summers I haven't been able to pick any - all the fields in my summer neighborhood seems to have only wheat and rye grown with straw-shortening chemicals. Sad, in so many, many ways. One of the lesser, for sure, is that it makes himmeli-making tricky. So I go for the plastic version, and every time I come across interesting plastic straws, I buy them! I found some silly maxi ones here (70 cm. long!) in a beautiful red, and decided to make a BIG and very Christmassy himmeli. I really went all the way, and decided on tissue paper tassels as well. Very festive.